Maybe it was the rust from a 17-day break between MLS games. Maybe it was too much speed and not enough creativity in the Vancouver Whitecaps starting lineup.

Maybe it was the unseen turf snakes popping up, and then tripping up too many players. Or perhaps it was referee Drew Fischer’s frequent – and often hotly debated -- whistles.

Whatever the case, for the entire dud of a first half and good chunks of the final 45 minutes of a 0-0 draw with the woeful and undermanned Montreal Impact the soccer was a poor facsimile of the beautiful game.

“It wasn’t very enjoyable watching it, was it?” said Vancouver coach Carl Robinson. “I didn’t enjoy watching it and I think the players didn’t enjoy playing in it.

“Bad day at the office, I think you call it. We take a point against a team that were happy for a point.”

Sure, the single point allowed the Caps (5-2-7) to extend their unbeaten string to eight games at 3-0-5. But given that they had been scoring goals almost at the same rate as the Netherlands prior to break – nine in three games -- it had to be considered valuable two points lost for the Caps.

“Yeah, it’s two points lost, but I’m always going to take the good with the bad,” said forward Darren Mattocks. “And the good thing is we didn’t play our best, but we still got a point.”

The Impact mostly sat back, kept their defensive form and tried to strike on the counterattack.

Robinson finally made good on his promise to start his three young speedsters together – Erik Hurtado at centre forward and Darren Mattocks and Kekuta Manneh on the wings.

But the trio displayed almost no chemistry and there was simply too many balls lumped forward in the hope they could exploit the Montreal back line. In fact, the Caps generated just one shot on target from three attempts in a first half that nearly put a sellout crowd of 21,000 to sleep.

“We were not playing with an urgency and a tempo that we have been,” said Robinson. “The speedy guys obviously had a quiet evening, were below the level they should have been.”

It certainly didn’t help that playmaker Pedro Morales appeared unnerved by putting on the captain’s armband in the absence of injured centre back Jay DeMerit. He was short on a handful of passes, misfired on others and didn’t look at all comfortable until well into the second half.

Team Speed were all subbed off in the second half – Manneh for Sebastian Fernandez in the 62nd minute and Mattocks for Russell Teibert in the 75th minute, both for tactical reasons -- and then a cramping Hurtado for Omar Salgado in the 84th minute.

To their credit, the Caps did look a bit more dangerous in the second half, with Manneh, Morales, off a low free kick that Troy Perkins just got his fingers on, and Caryle Mitchell, who started at right back for first-time father Nigel Reo-Coker, all forcing the Montreal goalkeeper to come up with big saves.

Perkins threw his hands up to stop a Mitchell header off a corner in the 77th minute, although he parried the ball right to Jordan Harvey who slammed a shot from close range off the post.

Montreal also found iron in the second half when Maxim Tissot fired a shot off the cross bar with Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted beaten.

Ousted, though, had kept the Caps in the game in the first half, making a handful of athletic stops to keep Montreal (2-7-4) off the scoresheet. He made a terrific reaction save of a deflected Tissot shot in the fourth minute and raced off his line a couple of times to beat Montreal players to balls.

“We were hoping the break wouldn’t have any impact on us, but obviously we’ve got to say that it looked like it did,” said Ousted.

“It was definitely not the result we were looking for. We were hoping for a win at home, but this shows you that there are no easy games in MLS. We took it a little bit too lightly today.”

The Caps are back on the pitch Saturday in Colorado for a key Western Conference matchup with the Rapids. Colorado, Dallas FC and Vancouver are all tied for third with 22 points, but the Caps have one game in hand on the Rapids and three on Dallas.

CORNER KICKS: Reo-Coker flew to New York early Wednesday for the birth of his first child. Scarlett Seven Reo-Coker, six pounds and 13 ounces, was born at 9:05 pm. Eastern time . . . Robinson said he was happy with the play of Mitchell, a centre back who has rarely even practiced at right fullback. “Fantastic today, a very positive performance in an unfamiliar position.”. . . The Caps’ regular right back, Steven Beitashour, will join the club in Colorado after being on Iran’s roster for the World Cup.

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Whitecaps, Impact play to a scoreless draw

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